Chrysler Cirrus Starting/Stalling Problems

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So I just put my alternator and battery on a tester. The battery showed 12 volts but went to low on load test. I started the car and right off it was missing. The alternater was jumping back and forth from 13 to 14 volts. It doesn't sound like much but it looked substantual on the meter. I reved the engine and the alternator started making noises I never herd before. It was not a belt slipping. Kinda like a high speed grinding. At this point I was charging at 13v. Acording to the meter that is bad. The grinding stopped and the charge went up to 14.5 and the car was idleing great until the cooling fan kicked on. The Idle came way down and a little rougher, charging at 12.5. I drove until it was hot (about 2 hours) it was 80+ degrees today. My check engine light came on for the first time ever and I was able to pull a code: 35 and 51 (lean oxygen and throtle control / vacuum). I punched out my Cat. which explains lean 02 and my cruise control is hit and miss so that explains both. I continued to let the car idle while hot checking my alternator. It slowly creeped down to 12v but I tryed to get the car to stall for 5 hours the alternator went back to charging at 14.5v and It wouldn't die today. Go figure. My alternator light has never come on but it was up and down and making noise like a Chinese Hooker. I'm going to replace it. I'll let you know how it goes.

I have a 1998 Chrysler Cirrus that I got last year from my aunt. It was well taken care of by my uncle. It runs nice, everything seems normal. But my sister was hitting 30 on a street and it started going backwards and it stalled, she said there was no oil, but we just checked it and there was a normal level of oil in it. I was thinking maybe a switch or maybe even the TCM and ECM were to blame. Any thoughts or suggestions let me know.

run fast away from this car nothing but a headache my mechanic couldnt find my stalling problem checked the alt replaced the ecm computer and checked a whole mess of other things....the car is a lemon...95 chrysler cirrus......besides my stalling problem i had an oil leak had to replace the whole steering rack bad front struts..this car is a nightmare...sold it even with all these problems i owned it for 3 months and took half of what i paid for it just to get rid of the headaches.....never again will i buy a chrysler product!!

run fast away from this car nothing but a headache my mechanic couldnt find my stalling problem checked the alt replaced the ecm computer and checked a whole mess of other things....the car is a lemon...95 chrysler cirrus......besides my stalling problem i had an oil leak had to replace the whole steering rack bad front struts..this car is a nightmare...sold it even with all these problems i owned it for 3 months and took half of what i paid for it just to get rid of the headaches.....never again will i buy a chrysler product!!

run fast away from this car nothing but a headache my mechanic couldnt find my stalling problem checked the alt replaced the ecm computer and checked a whole mess of other things....the car is a lemon...95 chrysler cirrus......besides my stalling problem i had an oil leak had to replace the whole steering rack bad front struts..this car is a nightmare...sold it even with all these problems i owned it for 3 months and took half of what i paid for it just to get rid of the headaches.....never again will i buy a chrysler product!!

run fast away from this car nothing but a headache my mechanic couldnt find my stalling problem checked the alt replaced the ecm computer and checked a whole mess of other things....the car is a lemon...95 chrysler cirrus......besides my stalling problem i had an oil leak had to replace the whole steering rack bad front struts..this car is a nightmare...sold it even with all these problems i owned it for 3 months and took half of what i paid for it just to get rid of the headaches.....never again will i buy a chrysler product!!

I had this exact thing happen to me when on vacation and it sucked, they changed the i wanna say it was the fuel positioning sensor, the check engine light did go out at first for about 10 minutes, however i did not have this particular problem again. I have read this car has multiple recalls so if u are having problems with this car call chrysler or look up the recall problems.

Hi there, I have a 2000 Chrysler Cirrus with 207k miles. It has the 2.5L V6 in which I just had the head-gasket redone and the head shaved less than 3k miles ago, I ran it out of gas recently on accident, put some new gas in and it ran fine for 700 to 1000 miles, Now the engine died a slow death, I would be driving at around 2K RPMS and it would just loose power, like fuel or spark just quit, then it would kick back on and be like normal, its been doing this for the last 200 miles, it just kept getting worse and worse it would die under a load and just sitting at idle around 2k RPMS, likr it lost spark, it would backfire and make popping sounds in the air intake, finally the other day it died completely and wouldn't restart, had it towed home... thought it was the gas even tho the gauge read 1/4 tank, so I put some gas in and after turning it over for 30 seconds it fired back up and it would rev right up... So me being optomistic i drove it again, made it 3.5 miles and same thing, with my foot on the gas driving around 2k RPM it just lost power and RPMS, so i stopped and tried to rev it up and it's almost like its being starved of fuel... checked that by taking the fuel rail line off and it has plenty of fuel in the line... it was revving up, very very slow in neutral. As soon as I put it in gear it didn't even have enough power to move.. eventually it quit starting altogether and before any of this happened it took a while to start (5-7 seconds of turning it over before it fired up) It has all new plugs and wires, oils, fluids, etc.. the Ignition Coil IS the OLD one and the only check engine code is a p0134 which is OXY Sensor Bank 1 no circuit input, in which it had this code before... I've read and heard some say Cam sensor or a un-grounded circuit, I'm just so fed up and parts are so much money for this car... Head-gasket job was 1500 bucks and I got the car for free and have around $2500 into it... any ideas guys? I'd like to fix it and sell it or sell it as is for the right price.... The motor is seriously sandwhiched in there and hard to get at things... any help would be appreciated.. I usually do my own mechanical work and can use a multi-meter. Im in too deep money wise to stop now... please help with this nightmare of a car! Thanks guys n gals -Peter

P.S. Someone on another forum said it could be the EGR (Exhaust Gas Reciculatory) Valve stuck open or closed, he said there is a slot on the exhaust side of the EGR pipeing where i can adjust the stem that open and closes the flapper and lubricate it....

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks in advance..

well I took the EGR off and cleaned it with kerosene and carb cleaner and soaked it and worked the vacumm valve action free, it was kinda stuck but i put it back together checked all the vaccum lines and its still doing the same thing will run but hard to start, only at idle, you try to revv it up and it just takes forever then dies, Im now thinking it could be the catylitic converter the way to took a while to die, where exactly is it located under the car? I see two muffler shaped objects on the exhaust, the muffler in back obviously just a muffler then a smaller one under the mid car and a cherry bomb looking thing after it, I wanted to cut open the cat from the bottom and smash all the stuff out and just weld it back up but i wanna make sure i cut into the right thing first..... thanks again, peter

Well the car is still in the driveway, I got pissed off and hollowed out the catalytic converter, didn't help. I'm pretty sure this is a Electrical problem... driving at around 2,000 RPMS just cruising it dies for a second or two, then it will turn back on almost like the spark plugs quit firing for a second or two... I thoroughly cleaned the EGR valve and etc. checked all the fuses and relays under the hood, seem to be all good, I heard the coil-pack drive gear is aluminum and can wear out?? I'm just so fed up with this Lemon car, got it for free and have over $2500 in it and it still doesnt run... I'd be willing to sell it for the right price as is (make offer) my e-mail is PeterJFuchsJr@gmail.com shoot me a message if you have any ideas as to whats wrong with it, I'm thinking something electrical as in bad ground or something of the like, let me know what you think. Thanks in advance!

I have the same problem with my car too!! I changed the MAP sensor but it didn't fix the problem. Now mechanics are suggesting me to change the PCM which costs about $350 at advance autoparts. So I'm not sure whether I should change the PCM or just keep driving it the way it is

Hi, I have a 1998 2.5 L Cirrus. It was running perfect last week. But two days ago I came back home and left it for two days and now it doesn't turn on anymore. When i turn the ignition, it makes cranking noise which means it's trying to start. So at first I thought my battery might be weak so I put a new battery in but it still isn't turning on Anybody has any ideas for me?

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hello. I have a 1998 chrysler cirrus and im running into an issue. It runs great in idle,but soon as i shift it into a gear and step on the gas the SOB cuts off. I recently replaced the battery, the distributor, the spark plugs, the rotor, the egr valve,the air filter, the wires, and the axle. all of which could have caused this. please im in need of help, if you have any suggestions or can point me in the right direction i would appreciate it.

I have a 2000 Chrysler Cirrus with the 2.5 V-6 that is having issues staying running. When I start the car and let it idle, it seems to run fine. After it warms up and when you rev it up to 2000 RPM's, it will start to bang, pop, backfire and run rough. The RPM gauge is all over the place. Eventually it will shut off after a few minutes of this. We have tried the throttle positioning sensor, new cap and rotor and it still is doing the same thing. When it did this at first, as soon as it did it and we got the car pulled over off the road, we looked under the car and the catalytic converter was glowing red, so we though maybe it was plugged. The converter was punched out and is totally clear and that didn't help either. Anybody have ideas on this? I've read a lot of other post about this, but some say to do this, some say to do that, and some seem to work for one person, but not the other................At a loss right now!

I have the solution to the Millions of vehicles affected by this failure, its not the Transmission pump, input shaft sensor, output shaft sensor, Selector range sensor, valve body, or solenoids. If you are sick of trying to figure out this problem and are mechanically inclined with a volt meter and basic tools i can help by sending wire colors and diagrams and ultamately guide you through the systematic process of diagnosing a vehicle and then verifying the part is bad. I wanted to post a diagram but it will not let me. it is in the charging system but not alternator! Its in the PCM and its called the (generator field driver) that provades a ground to other components like the (Automatic shut down relay) its an intermitten problem with the PCM unable to provide a source for ground wich in turn confuses the tcm on what to do putting it in fail safe mode. the curcuit loses ground source for a very short second so a noid light, test light, volt meter will work but an ocylliscope would be best... thats why it will go in fail safe at the most random time! it has to be during gear change operation. HARDEST CAR I HAVE EVER DIAGNOSED! 10 YEARS ASE Master Tech. Im not saying that was the only problem with that discription, but its the most unknow fix for the 95% that never were ... i have not heard one tech talk about this! sad! Need help? Just respond

i have a 98 chrysler cirrus that came to the shop for an radiator leack so i fixed it while i was letting it worm up the engine started misfiring real bad so i shut the car off noticed fuel gauge was low so i added fuel n the car wont start back up i checked fuel pressure didnt have any replaced fuel pump n filter car still wont start checked spark and injector pulse all was good sprayed either inside throttlebody n still wont start any ideas guys iv chasing my tail for three days help plz .....................

My Cirrus v6 1998 - Would start up and usually die a couple times, would die sometimes at stop lights.... Going down the road it would sometimes stall going down the road at 60 miles an hour !! I could always restart the car after a STALL.. No Dash lights would stay on, only flash on and off. Went to autozone to check for any codes, no codes!! Went to Pep Boys for Diagnostic couldn't find anything to cause the STALLING!! Finally I discovered this website
Read everyone's problems about stalling etc... FINALLY! Decided to try and replace the CRANK SHAFT POSITION SENSOR........MY CAR NO LONGER STALLS AT STOPLIGHTS AND DOESN'T STALL ON THE HIGHWAY Not saying this will work for everyone, but if you have the problems I have listed .. Crank Shaft Position sensor should be the first PART I would TRY to correct the problems. Note-- when my car would stall i could always re-start it every time. ( Which made me think it wasn't a bad crank sensor )
I hope this helps and works for you..... It may save you alot of CASH, and headaches!

Okay, I have a 98 cirrus also. Only 83000 miles because employment provided a vehicle, the car has just not been driven much. I am no longer employed so I am trying to get the car running. The problem I'm having is electrical. Intermittently the dash lights will go out and it doesn't appear that the battery is getting charged. I have replaced the battery and I have had the alternator check which checked out to be working. I have tried driving it short distances in case it dies but I'm not sure my problem is related to the problems in this forum. I want to sell the car but would like to fix this "battery light" problem first. Any suggestions?

I've not taken the time to read the more recent posts on this, but will. First let me throw out a quick fix for those that have been having problems in the summer, mostly after or when it's raining or very humid. Make sure you've got at least a half tank of gas and put in a bottle of Heet. Or just carry bottles with you, in case it's bogging or has stalled, even if you don't have much gas in there -- add it. Then with it in park or neutral with your foot on the brake, rev it for a couple of minutes. If you have the room for this, try and drive it a little bit in a safe enough spot to do so (like not crossing an intersection or pulling out into traffic). I've even driven it back and forth in my driveway like ten times to help the Heet do it's job. It evaporates moisture / water build-up. Then do your best to keep your car at about a full tank all the time.

I've gone through all the crap with this, had it to three different repair shops and dropped a ton of cash. A $2 bottle of Heet has done the trick more often than not. You just have to give it time to work through the system before you trust it to drive you far (I've found that out the hard way). Hope this helps somebody. Oh, and mine is a '99 Cirrus LXI. So it's not just the models before that.